Pocket Garden Success at Gardening Scotland

Visitors to Gardening Scotland this weekend selected Gigha Primary School as the winner of the prestigious 2017 My Favourite Pocket Garden Award - as part of the One Planet Picnic Pocket Garden feature at the event.

The Pocket Garden designs on display were selected from over 300 competition entries from across the length and breadth of Scotland to create the Living Garden, at Gardening Scotland this past weekend (2nd - 4th June). The real-life gardens were then judged and four were presented with awards.

The pupils were tasked with designing a colourful and exciting pallet sized garden – that included plants for people to eat, is good for wildlife and celebrates the year of history heritage and archaeology, while reusing materials which would otherwise be discarded.

The Pocket Garden Competition is run in partnership between Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Garden for Life Forum. The Garden for Life Forum and Gardening Scotland selected the entries that were then turned into a real-life garden for display at the weekend. The gardens were then judged by members of the Forum and a select few are presented with awards, based on the 2017 Pocket Garden themes. Commendations were also received by Staffin Primary School, Grove Academy, and Williamwood High School.

The winners were:

One Planet Picnic - Douglas Academy

Wildlife Gardening - Dunoon Grammar School

Year of History, Heritage, and Archaeology- Arnhall Day Nursery

Gigha Primary School was selected as the winner of the My Favourite Pocket Garden Award by members of the public who visited the Living Garden display over the course of the weekend- with more than 600 votes cast across the three days.

Gigha Primary School developed a “Mini-me island” which mirrored the island in its current form complete with rocky coast, beaches, buildings and a golf course of cress with egg shell sand bunkers.

Eve Keepax, Food and Environment Officer at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “We are delighted to present Gigha Primary School with the 2017 My Favourite Pocket Garden Award. It has been truly fantastic to see the pupils’ creations come to life at Gardening Scotland.

“The One Planet Picnic Pocket Garden Competition helps to bring all areas of the curriculum together in a fun and creative manner - helping pupils to use their skills and knowledge to grow food sustainably, encourage biodiversity and support recycling. It has also helped to bring whole communities together to share their knowledge and skills as they create their Pocket Gardens.”

Anthony McCluskey, Chair of the Garden for Life Forum, said:

“All of this year’s gardens impressed us in different ways, showing how creative and hard-working these children and their teachers are. They are the next generation of gardeners and growers, so we were delighted to see how much they enjoyed it, and hope that they learned some new skills and discovered a passion for gardening.

“Well done to the winners from Gigha Primary School who excelled with a brilliant design which was delivered to such a high standard and fulfilled the design brief wonderfully!”

Every garden has a story to tell about the people who helped make it, the challenges faced, solutions found, lessons learned and the unexpected pleasures along the way. Have a read of the story of each Pocket Garden in pupils' own words in Our Garden Story.